Fall 2025
Professor(s):
J Anna Cabot (CLINICAL FACULTY [405(b)])
Credits: 6
Course Areas: Practice Skills - Clinics and Externships
International Law
Time: 1:00p-2:30p TTH Location: 221
Course Outline: As a student in this clinic, you will both represent an asylum seeker and participate in immigration advocacy projects.
During your asylum representation, you will be your client’s attorney and therefore responsible for all aspects of the case—client interviewing and counseling, fact investigation and development, working with expert witnesses, legal research and drafting documents, negotiations, and trial advocacy. You will work in pairs or groups of three under the supervision of one of the professors.
You will also be involved in immigration advocacy or community outreach. In the past this has included providing pro se assistance at local immigration courts, participating in pro se workshops that the clinic organizes to provide naturalization assistance, and participating in informational presentations.
In addition to the case and advocacy work, known as fieldwork, there is a classroom component to the clinic. The class will meet twice a week and will include classes on lawyering skills, substantive law, procedural rules, and ethical considerations. Class time also includes case rounds which are group problem solving sessions where a case team presents a problem to the class and the class helps the team to examine the problem, consider their own goals, and brainstorm solutions.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Quota=12
Accepted students must attend a mandatory 2½ day orientation held from Wednesday to Friday before the first day of classes. A Clinic student group picture will be taken during orientation. Students will receive a separate email with additional information.
The date and time of orientation can be found in the Clinic webpage at
www.law.uh.edu/clinic/clinic-orientation.asp
Course Materials
David Binder et al., Lawyers as Counselors (4th ed. 2019)
Paul Bergman, Trial Advocacy (6th ed. 2016)
Other readings and asynchronous materials will be posted on Sharepoint.
Prerequisites: Yes Good academic standing.
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: clinic
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Unavailable (Instructor Preference)
Course Materials
Book(s) Required
Course Materials: David Binder et al., Lawyers as Counselors (4th ed. 2019) (ISBN: 9781640203907) Paul Bergman, Trial Advocacy in a Nutshell (7th ed. 2023) (ISBN: 9781685615819) Other readings and asynchronous materials will be posted on SharePoint.
